Sorry, I haven't blogged lately!

I've been busy with school and http://www.cakeconvention.com/live-teen-competition

And unfortunately, one of our beloved birds passed away last night. We have been with the birds for 6 years, and the female, Kakira, was sick. We took her to the doctors and she still felt sick. She died at 7:07pm on my hands. Kakira was not our pet, she was a friend and a family member who brought happiness and joy to the family. Rest in Peace Kiki.

Good News Revealed.

Are you guys ready?????? Drum roll please.....

I will be competing live in a Teen Cake Challenge at the NY Cake Convention in NYC on January 3rd, 2010. The theme to the challenge will be "School Days..." The admission to the challenge will be 8 dollars and it will be held at Hotel Pennsylvania, right around Madison Square Garden! I will have four hours all to myself and my cake to work some magic. I won't lie; I am excited and a bit fearful. More information will be posted on their site. Wish me luck!!

Unique Tinkerbell Themed Sweet 16 Cake.

Yes, this cake was a monster!! The tree stump was a cleaned PVC pipe covered in rice cereal treats then fondant and then painted in brown food coloring and vodka. The four cakes included Dominican cake with: mango buttercrean, guava filling and cookies and cream buttercream. One was rich chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. The cake where the tree was on was Dominican cake with strawberry buttercream, while the top of the tree was Puerto Rican style pound cake with vanilla buttercream. Oooh! Lots of cake flavors!! The dolls were all provided by the customer. This was not too of a challenging cake, but very time consuming. Thanks to dad, who I told to make the support system for the cake... he surpassed my expectations!

Rose Madness!!!

On Sunday evening, I had some gum paste laying around and I decided to play with it. After making ribbon roses and bows, I began making roses, just for fun. I was inspired by one of the people I admire the most, Ron Ben-Israel. Here are the roses!!

Cake Artists That I Truly Admire...

Busy November ahead for me! I wanted to take time to feature some cake artists that I admire a whole lot. Let's begin:

Did we all watch Wedding Cake Wars on WeTV, a few weeks ago?? If so, you saw some really nice cakes. One that stood out to me was the beautiful pink wedding cake with sugar peonies created by Clara Gold. When I saw who made it I decided to search her name and found the site of her business. And she is amazing! She makes beautiful wedding cakes with a fashionable edge to them. To see some of her work, you can visit her site: http://www.clarasdesignercakes.com/

Next. I stumbled upon a blog named EatCakeBeMerry. I saw the cakes on the blog and saw how clean and chic, yes I said chic, her cakes were! Her cakes, Liz Shim, are very modern. She learned a lot from one of the people I most admire in the cake business, Elisa Strauss (confetticakes.com). Liz's website is eatcakebemerry.com

Ron Ben Israel. His name deserves a sentence all to himself. He makes the most beautiful sugar flowers ever! He is also a chef instructor at the French Culinary Institute. One day, I would love to learn more about sugar flowers from him.

Now that we are on the subject of sugar flowers, I also want to spotlight a fellow blogger who makes cakes with sugar flowers, and are also super awesome. Her blog is: petalsweet.blogspot.com

Robin Martin from Minnesota makes gorgeous cakes, yes I said gorgeous... :) She was featured in one Food Network Challenge and her cake was super awesome. The cakes that she makes for her clients are very close to perfection. I love her work! http://www.gateaux-inc.com/

New York cake designers that I love: Ron, Elisa Strauss, Colette Peters, Kate Sullivan...

The princess of versatility in cake: Anne Heap. The great Anne can make a 7-tier wedding cake filled with tons of sugar flowers and she can also make a sculpted cake to look like a replica of your pet, and make it spin at the same time! Anne's blog was the first blog I had ever followed. http://www.pinkcakebox.com/

The amazing, undefeated Food Network Challenge Champs, TheCakeGirls, Brenda and Mary Maher. They make the coolest cakes ever. Ranging from wedding cakes, birthday cakes to sculpted cakes, the Cake Girls always deliver! They are also one of the cake shops spotlighted in WeTV's hit, Amazing Wedding Cakes.

Cake artists that I love from California: Grace Chyun (makes wonderful cakes) http://www.sweet-gems.com/ ~ Debbie Goard (creates one of a kind sculpted cakes) http://www.debbiedoescakes.net/ ~ Christopher Russom & Marjorie Chua (they make amazing, did I say amazing, cakes) http://www.letthemeatcake.net/ James Roselle (makes cakes with sugar flowers that are top in the industry) http://www.ellecakes.com/ ~ I love Marina Sousa, that is all I need to say!! http://www.justcake.com/

The genius Mike McCarey is gggrrrreeeeaaaattt!! I have his car cake DVD and lets just say, I hope he continues making DVDs, because that one is ggggrrrreeeeaaaatttt!!

Other people I love: Lauren Kitchens, Ashley Vicos, Courtney Clark (topsy turvey dare devil!)...

A buddy of mine Michelle Bommarito, whose wedding cake genius has made her one of the top cake instructors in our country and one of the most popular and loved Food Network Challenge competitors!

Someone who has a become a close colleague of mine in the cake world, who I haven't met but it sure feels like I have, Diane Shavkin. A sweet women with great intentions in life. One of my sugar grandmothers! :) Visit her site for great cake information and tutorials. (I mean great, you can spend hours on their) http://www.shavkin.com/

Uhh... I'm tired. It's been a long post... :)

There are people who inspire me everyday. Ones whose blogs and sites I stumble upon... I want to thank everyone whose helped me. Some may not know, but your blogs and sites are a great help as I continue on in my cake adventures. Thank you all.

A very special shout out to my mother who began me in the cake world. Her Dominican cake, decorated with meringue icing has pushed me into making cakes. Thanks to her I have found what I am truly passionate about, at a very early age.

Also, to the man who helped me discover cakes more, Don Jose. He is our pastry instructor (pastry extraordinaire!) who taught my mother and I how to make fabulous pastries. YES, I also make pastries! :) He opened my parents eyes to my potential in the cake business, and I thank him a whole lot for what he did. Initially, many did not approve of what I wanted to do (make cakes).... But with every cake I produce, it is a slap in the face to the ones who didn't want me doing this...! Thanks a million Don Jose!! ;)

I talk a lot, don't I?? Let me stop before I type my life story. :) I have a lot of cakes to make in the next few weeks, so keep checking the blog!!!!

Polka Dot Birthday Cake.

This birthday cake is covered with small polka dots in light pastel colors. My brother was a huge help while decorating this cake. He placed the dots onto the cake as I piped onto where they belong. He also had the genius idea of placing the bow on the cake. Inside the cake was a Dominican cake with vanilla buttercream and a rich chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. Thanks Ro!

HINT:

Yes, at NYC.

No, not the face-off...

But yes, NYC.

Good News!!

I really can't say yet, but there's some good news... I will officially share the news with everyone once I get the "Rules & Regulations." Ooopps.... That was a hint. Oh well. You can leave a comment guessing the good news. Some of you may already know, so don't ruin it!

NY Cake Convention!!

On January 2nd, the first ever NY Cake Convention will take place at Hotel Pennsylvania. I will be attending for a few days, taking classes, admiring work, shopping and even assisting a class. I will be assisting Diane Shavkin's class:

"Tools, Cutters, Clear Impression Stamps & Puffed Embroidery"

Here is the information to the class:

The Theme is baby. The class is scheduled for: Saturday, January 2, 2010 from 1pm-5pm. The fee is $100.00 for a 4-hour class which includes a kit for the students to take home. The kit contains most of the tools and cutters to be used in the class. The retail value of the kit is over $25.00.

Here is the link to her website with a great deal of how-to articles on the sugar art as well as pictures. www.shavkin.com

Diane developed the innovative technique that will be taught called "Puffed Embroidery." This technique is becoming known due to the popularity of rolled fondant on cakes. The technique can not only be used to decorate cakes, but also can be used to decorate cupcakes and cookies.

Here is the NY Cake Convention's website:
www.cakeconvention.com

Here is the picture of the technique that will be taught:

Calla Lily Wedding Cake.

Earlier today we delivered this wedding cake. It was raining today and the fondant was misbehaving! The fondant was sweating and getting sticky. I managed to deal with it The calla lilies I created this past week out if SatinIce gumpaste; they were a firey orange color. The 4-tier square cake was off-set for an untraditional element. Here it is:

Another post down. One more to go to meet my goal!

It's REALLY A Domino Effect...

When I first made a Domino cake, it was around 6 months or so ago. It's been a really popular cake amongst Dominican men celebrating a birthday. Here is the most recent Domino cake I made. The cake inside was Dominican cake with one layer each of guava filling, pineapple preserve and vanilla buttercream. The chips and dots were made with chocolate fondant. The cake was covered with ivory fondant. For the border I decided not to pipe, so I made chocolate fondant balls of different sizes.

I konw, I know. I haven't blogged in a while. I owe it to you guys to blog atleast two more times before Halloween. That gives me a week. Oh god, let's get bloggin'....

Ivory & Gold Cake!

One of my favorite cakes to date. This four tier baby with cake sizes, 14' 10' 7' and 4', had two different flavors: red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and Dominican cake with vanilla buttercream. The colors were obviously ivory and gold and the details ranged from ivory daisies with gold centers, to gold butterflies and a gold "15" topper made out of sugar. My mom gave me the brilliant idea of instead of covering the base with fondant, to drape fondant to imitate a dress: AMAZING! Here are more detail views:

I had to throw this picture in, just for the reader's pleasure. :)

I turned 16!!!

Last Saturday, the 12th, I turned 16!! Oh yea. And yes, before you ask, I did make my own cake. I didn't want anything fancy so I settled on a tres leches cake! Here are some progress pictures:

This above is the "tres leches" part of the cake. Evaporated milk, half and half and condensed milk turned into dulce de leche. Yum!!! I wanted to bathe in this!

The cake after soaking. Sorry there are no finished product picture! The cake was topped with whipped cream. Yummm 2x!

What's up, dog...

Here is a dog cake! A client wanted a dog cake for her daughter's birthday. Her daughter told me the colors and flavors she liked. I mixed fondant and tylose to make the hearts, swags and dog. I covered the cake in pale blue fondant and piped in royal icing.The client wanted something nice and simple; thankfully they loved it.

The last time I saw the birthday girl, she told me that she already ate the dog's hears and that his tail was next! She also brought me a goody bag from her party. :) Inside was a yellow cake filled with a cookies and cream buttercream. Bark if you like!:

Soccer Ball Birthday Cake.

Another sports cake. After my cousin saw my dad's cake, she wanted one for her boyfriend's birthday. He loves soccer, so a soccer ball it was. He was turning 21, so I think it was appropriate to put the age on the cake. Here's the goooooool:

Dad's Birthday Cake.

Hey y'all! Let's get down to business. This cake here was a home run. I was for my dad's 53rd birthday. He loves Carrot Cake and loves baseball. The cupcakes were an extra touch. Everything was covered in fondant and had royal icing details. Hope you have many more dad!!

Summer Break is almost Over...

Yes I agree, sad. The new school year is right around the corner and I'm not ready for it. I am not physically, mentally, emotionally and most importantly cakelly ready. I still need to work on summer reading assignments (waste of time) and I need to prepare myself for a tough year. In other good news, there are a few cake classes I wanna take and a few conventions/expos I wanna attend. The first is in Charlotte, North Carolina, the 2009 American Retail Bakery Exposition, www.rbanet.com/ARBE2009/index.html The amazing Ron Ben Israel will be teaching and giving a demo. Last year I saw him and several other cake people. Here's one:

That in my hand was the piece of fondant that Colette demoed brush embroidery on; her assistant gave it to me at the end! This was September 2008 and I still have it!!

Also, there is a convention being planned called the NY Cake Convention. Though still in the process of happening, the organizers have a location and a few instructors on the list. The instructors who currently spark my interest are Michelle Bommarito and Ashley Vicos. The other two on the list are the Cake Diva Charmaine Jones and Lauri Ditunno who appears on Wetv's Amazing Wedding Cakes (one of my favorite shows). I'm really excited about this one; it is set to take place on January 2-4 of 2010. Here's a link to their Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/CakeConvention

And lastly, the ICES Convention. It will take place in San Diego, California on August 12-15 of 2010, almost a year from now! the ICES website is: http://www.ices.org And the ICES Convention of 2010's site is: http://www.ices10.org (still being organized).

Until Next Time!

An Elegant Sweet 16 Cake.

With the Princess Jasmine theme, this cake involves the gold and deep blue/turquoise and lime green colors. I made tear drop shaped fondant decorations and small stars rising up to the cake. Inside the cake was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting (one of my favorites!). Sorry for the blurry photo, due to the photo being taken with my cell phone!

A Simple Birthday Cake.

A friend of ours wanted a simple cake for her husband's birthday. Here it is. Inside there is a Dominican cake filled with a guava filling and iced in American Buttercream (specified by her).

Spank me.

Nothing naughty. You can call the kids back into the room. It's just that I've been making tons of cakes and not taking pictures of 'em. It's not that they don't look nice, cause trust me, they do, it's just laziness on my part. Well I managed to take these today because my mom forced me into it and my cousin reminded me to. This was a small but fairly unique baby shower cake. As a last minute order, I was given artistic freedom. Taking the time and budget into account, I came up with this design.